Toxic Trade

Globalization and the Safety of the American Consumer

As American consumers buy a sharply increased share of their goods from overseas, the American government has been cutting back its ability to regulate and inspect imports. Americans consumers are thus exposed to increasing numbers of products that were neither produced in America nor subject to American safety standards. The results put people at risk.

Our report, "Toxic Trade: Globalization and the Safety of the American Consumer," documents these two trends. Government statistics show that imports have increased by 338 percent since 1974, the year the Consumer Product Safety Commission was created. Yet the budget for that agency today is less than half what is was in that year. In effect, we have been disarming our ability to protect ourselves, even as the need to do so has been soaring. Our report concludes that it is past time for a change.

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TAKE ACTION: Ask your member of Congress to back a law that will help shut down the flow of dangerous consumer products into our stores.

The Toxic Trade Challenge

Our report calls for several areas where leadership is needed:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission needs a budget and staff proportional to the challenge of protecting consumers in a global economy. It also may need additional statutory authority, such as that contained in legislation currently being proposed by Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.

The federal government should be called upon to collect and maintain information on the scale of imports and the ability of regulatory agencies to monitor these imports and keep consumers safe.

Corporations should be held responsible for the products they sell, and the federal government should set meaningful minimum standards for those products.

Future trade agreements should not sacrifice the health, safety, labor and environmental standards that Americans demand and expect.

High Imports, Low Defenses

These two charts show what has happened in the years since the Consumer Product Safety Commission was founded. As the level of imported goods coming into the American market increased, the CPSC’s budget (above), when adjusted for inflation, has not even come close to keeping pace. And the agency’s staff (below), which at its peak had nearly 1,000 employees, now has 420. And the budget President Bush sent to Congress this year would have cut the staff even further.